A Story of Grace Part 5: Fre Pollen
by thatblue
Summary: Fre Pollen: A blue pollen of the Fre tree that induces harmless delusions, followed by the victim being unable to speak anything but the truth.
1. Chapter 1

**Guess What? I don't own Doctor Who.**

Grace stepped out of the doors onto the green grass and smiled. There had been way too much drama surrounding their lives lately in her opinion and they needed a bit of time to just relax.

"The planet of Tuesday," the Doctor announced closing the door behind him as he was the last one out.

Grace gave him her best smile and then began to walk ahead, moving towards the lake that was only a short distance away. It was beautiful here, similar to Earth in the color scheme and she loved it. It was late summer, very late, and that made the temperature warm but not overwhelmingly hot.

In a few weeks the temperature would drop to below freezing and stay that way for the planets three weeks of winter and then it would begin the rapid climb back up to blazing heat.

This was about the only time of year it was comfortable to come. There was about a five week span that you wouldn't feel like you were melting or freeze.

Her father was talking about things as he tended to do and she knew she should be listening but she found her mind wandering. But to be fair she had a lot of thoughts running through her mind and they all deserved time.

Oh…she wondered if he would take her to get some Brayden chocolate later. It was the best chocolate in the universe, at least in her opinion. The Doctor tried to avoid the planet because he claimed they didn't appreciate the Time Lord genius but Grace really didn't care. If they kept the chocolate coming they could act like she didn't have a brain at all.

"Grace," she heard a snort of laughter come from the dignified Time Lord she called a father.

She turned to look at him and frowned. He was standing near the water, alone, and was grinning like he had found a lifetime supply of coffee.

"Dad," she started to move to him, ignoring the giggles that seemed to be rising up in her.

It took about three seconds to realize what was going on here. She looked up at the trees, and noticed that the flowers, the Fre flowers, were still in full bloom. And a quick glance at the grass and she noticed it was lightly dusted with a blue pollen.

Great, two weeks to early if she had to guess. The weather was fine, but the flowers were still pollinating and he had landed them here.

She spun to find Jack doing what she assumed was an attempted cartwheel and then spotted her mother chatting up a tree.

"Grace," he let out a string of giggles that she smiled at before she caught herself. She was losing this battle but maybe with all the mind control they had taught her she could wrangle them back to the TARDIS first.

"Can I tell you something, Grace?" He asked her raising a hand to cover his mouth but it didn't stifle the girly noises that he was producing.

"I'd rather you didn't," Grace told him, fairly certain that it wasn't going to be something she really wanted to hear.

"I'm going to tell you," he insisted.

"Of course," she nodded and waited for him to speak again, trying to think and failing miserably.

He leaned in close, like he was giving her the secret that would unlike time itself. "I'm a boat!"

"What?"

He leaned back with a smile that spoke everything she needed to know. "A boat. You know, a boat," he made a gesture towards the water as if that explained it all, and she supposed it did.

"Right," she agreed with him, "And you're a great boat, I'm going to go talk to Mom, stay here, okay?"

He nodded but she doubted that he even knew what he was agreeing to. The Fre pollen wasn't deadly as such; it just affected the body and mind in three steps. The first was delusions, usually harmless, such as boat boy. And the second was something akin to a truth serum. Absolute truth.

She wanted to have them back in the TARDIS and separated by the time step two came. And step three, the body slipped into a deep slumber for about twenty hours. After that, you awoke with a lot 'maybe' memories, which was best really, and a slight headache.

Reaching her Mom's side she saw her running her finger up and down the tree slowly and talking softly to it.

"Mom," she tried, wishing she wasn't standing right under the flower blossoms as the pollen was coating her now.

Her Mother turned to her, and looked surprised. "Hi Grace, good to see you. This is my new friend."

"It's a tree," Grace told her, as kindly as she could manage. She could feel her self control slipping and she took a breath and fought harder.

"Shh," Donna put her spare finger to her lips. "Isn't he handsome?"

"Yes, what about Dad?"

Donna looked like she was thinking for a moment before resuming her awkward stroking. "Don't tell him, it's just a harmless flirt."

"Mom, we need to go back to the TARDIS before you do something everyone here will regret."

"Oh, love, you worry too much. I'm not going to leave your father for him."

"I would hope not," Grace said with a sigh and a tiny hiccup of a giggle escaped over her lips.

"Mom, this is Fre pollen," Grace ran her fingertips over the blue dusting on her Mom's shirt. "And somewhere inside that brain is the knowledge that the second step is the truth, yes? We need to go before you start telling me something that will scar me, like about you and Dad dancing."

"I like to dance," Jack's voice shouted to her, and she turned to see him now lying on the grass making grass angels.

"Me too," her father agreed.

She slapped her forehead and was tempted to just give in to the pollen. At least if she did, she wouldn't be aware of what was coming out of these people's mouths.

She felt herself falling when she heard a loud splash behind her and forced herself back from the surface, which was good because she was starting to feel the need to claw something, and if she had to be a cat in her delusion she wasn't going to be happy.

She spun and saw her father in the lake, splashing and making motor noises, loudly. She shook her head, there was no such thing as a normal life around here, and she marched to get him out of the water.

**To be continued….**


	2. Chapter 2

Standing on the edge of the lake she argued with her father, who was acting like a child if she did say so herself.

"Now," she pointed to the grass beside her.

"No," he stuck out his bottom lip. "I'm a boat."

She rubbed her hand down her face, feeling more than a little frustrated. She had maybe five minutes of hold left on her own mind and she would rather that he wasn't in a body of water when she let it slip

"One," she raised her voice, adopting a tone of mother. If he was going to act like a child then she would make him obey.

He stood up, the water only up to his knees though he had been splashing around in it like it was deep, and crossed his arms. "I don't have to."

She ignored him. "Two…you don't want me to get to three young man."

He was watching her, sizing up the situation, and then with a flick of his tongue between his lips he moved to leave the water. If she remembered this she was going to remind him that she had just convinced the Oncoming Storm to do something by counting.

She giggled and he grinned at her, suit soaking but he was on land again. She wiped the pollen off of her arm, and licked her wrist tasting the chemicals coursing through her. About half an hour left of the delusions, then the truth. She probably didn't want to be mentally around for that.

"All right," she raised her voice, hoping the tone of authority would work as well on the other two as it had on the Doctor. "We are going back to the TARDIS now!"

"TARDIS smardis," the Doctor mumbled from her side.

She turned to him, only to receive a hand full of grass in the face from Jack. "Grass fight," he shouted bending down to get more.

The Doctor looked like Jack had just presented him with cake…banana cake… and bent down to get his own handful. The only good thing that came from it was that Donna left her 'friend' and decided to join in.

Grace sighed, and let herself go. What was the point, she couldn't fight it forever.

DW

The Doctor lay down beside Jack on the grass spreading his arms and legs and then hopped up to see his creation. It didn't look like anything, except to him it was a perfect grass angel.

"Donna," he shouted, too loudly. "Come look what I made for you."

Donna skipped over to him, actually skipped, and looked down. "Oh, it wonderful. Thank you so much." She reached up and grabbed the Doctor's face and pulled him into her for a kiss.

There was a LOT of tongue involved and Grace sighed loudly. "Jack…I want a kiss."

Something in the Doctor's brain told him that he should say something at this point but he couldn't figure out what it was. He let Donna go and gave Jack and Grace a look, trying to remember why he didn't want them to kiss, and it wasn't until Jack pulled Grace close to him that he thought of it.

"No!"

Grace and Jack looked at him, "No, what?" Jack asked, still leaning in towards Grace.

"No," the Doctor insisted. "Just no."

All right, so he didn't completely understand, but he knew that no was the correct word and he was sticking with it. Donna was nodding like she agreed.

Jack gave him a shrug and then let go of her and dropped to one knee. "Will you marry me, Grace Elizabeth Noble?"

The Doctor watched Grace, thinking suddenly of tackling Jack and shoving grass in his face. Not to hurt him of course, just to make him back away from his daughter.

"No," this time it was Donna who spoke. She spun around and dropped down to mimic Jack's posture in front of the Doctor. "Doctor, will you marry me?"

The Doctor giggled. "Of course I will, and then we can dance. Cause I like to dance, especially when you do that…."

The next thing the Doctor knew he was lying on the ground with Grace sitting on top of him shaking her head. "No, no dancing. It's icky."

"But I thought…." Jack was pouting.

The Doctor tried to think but couldn't. He just nodded to Grace somehow certain he didn't want her dancing with Jack or anyone else. "Icky."

She seemed satisfied and climbed off of him and Donna moved to help him up. He opened his mouth to speak when he felt something in his mind shift. Oh, no. Fre pollen.

And if he could understand that, he looked at the others, which meant that he had already experienced the first stage. And now they were entering the second. He had to get them back to the TARDIS now. He was vaguely aware that Grace had been trying that before.

"TARDIS," he announced, trying to keep his words few. It may make you tell the truth, but if you didn't speak then you didn't have to be honest.

They were looking at him carefully and he knew by the way their pupils suddenly dilated that they too had slipped into stage two. He could only hope that they would try to keep their mouths shut. He suspected they all held plenty of things that the others didn't really want to hear.

And he also knew that if you started, it was very hard to stop talking.

"I love the TARDIS," Grace told him with a smile.

Well at least that was a good truth, but he tried to warn her with his eyes. She understood, he knew that, but it was so hard to fight the minds desire to spill all.

"I like you," Jack told her with a smile the Doctor didn't care for.

This wasn't a fun stage. To have control of your mind, but not your words and knowing when you said something that you shouldn't have.

"I like you too," Grace told him. "You're my best friend, Jacky Jack."

"I want to do things with you that your father wouldn't approve of," Jack told her and then looked at the Doctor holding up his hands in surrender.

"Jack," the Doctor glared.

Donna took the Doctors hand, "Let's go back to our room," Donna told him.

The Doctor looked down at her. They had a healthy drive, he could admit that, but he couldn't…wouldn't…come on mind you can do this. "And have sex?" He failed.

Donna nodded.

Grace made a noise that resembled vomit. "I knew this was going to happen."

"That's how we made you," Donna told her, as if Grace didn't know. "I remember it well; we had a fight about who ate the last banana muffin. And then the next thing I know we are on top of the kitchen table."

Grace held up her hand, humming loudly while Donna finished her story. "Please tell me we have a new table."

"We cleaned it," the Doctor supplied.

"I eat breakfast there."

"I ate there," the Doctor told her before he could stop himself. His poor child, he could only hope these memories vanished during the sleep stage.

Grace made a face. "I'm never going to get that thought out of my head."

"I could eat there," Jack told Grace with a wink.

"Father," she told Jack with a head gesture.

"I know," Jack nodded. "I can't stop."

"TARDIS," the Doctor repeated, hoping to get them moving and then into separate rooms. Especially Grace and Jack and he would be locking the doors.


	3. Chapter 3

"Daddy," Grace spoke, so close, just a few steps from the TARDIS.

"Yes?"

"Sometimes I tell the TARDIS to make your room pink," she didn't make eye contact.

Donna stopped, "I should have known it was you, and you Doctor," she slapped his arm lightly. "Telling me that it must be some secret desire in my heart, because deep inside I'm just a softie…oh and what did you say…something about hidden dreams of being a princess?"

"I didn't know," the Doctor held up his hands. "I was just trying to help explain why the walls had suddenly gone pink."

Grace was giggling, and the sound itself made the Doctor take pause. She sounded like his little girl again, even Donna stopped. It had been a while since she had been forced to be the worst part of a Time Lord and though she was better this was the first real laugh.

"Sorry," she mumbled, and if it hadn't been for the fact that she couldn't lie, the Doctor would have thought she wasn't.

Jack was laughing too, and Donna turned and glared. "You said something about eating that involved my one and only child, do you think you should be pushing your luck?"

Jack shook his head, and though the laughing ceased on the surface his body shook with the effort.

"You didn't complain when I was your prince, I remember well, you were all 'oh my prince, you have come to rescue me. Let me ravish you in thanks."

Grace stopped laughing, abruptly. "There is no where that the TARDIS can put my room that will be far enough away from you two after all this sharing."

"I know," the Doctor told her, he was very sorry, but there wasn't anything that he could do about it.

The Doctor unlocked the TARDIS door, and they all piled inside. He started to walk up to the console, but Grace was already piloting, apparently even more eager than him to get away from the group.

"All right, separate ways, I think," the Doctor said.

"I'd really rather stay with Grace," Jack told the Doctor.

"I'm sure you would, but I'm afraid if you did, I would toss you out in space."

"Seems fair," Jack nodded.

The Doctor was glaring, he knew what was coming, but as a father it was his job to keep his daughter away from wandering hands as long as possible. And speaking of wandering hands, Donna was pinching his butt. He was fairly sure that the pollen only worked on speech but just in case, it was time to go away from his child.

"Donna," he reached back and pried her hand off of him. "In a minute, I promise you can touch as much as you like."

"Good, I'm going to hold you to that," she muttered, her tone dropping to his special, only in the bedroom, voice. Not the in front of the daughter who will surely be scarred for her very long life if they didn't stop.

"I'm going to bed," Grace mumbled. "I hope I forget all of this. I better forget all of this."

"Yes," the Doctor agreed, moving to follow her, only for the sake of making sure that Jack didn't join her.

She opened her door, and looked at the three of them in the hall. "Go to bed," she instructed, sounding like the parent in this case. "I don't want to know what you do, but I want to remind you that you have about fifteen minutes until the sleep hits so…you know…don't do any acrobatics."

She made a face, at her own words.

"Right," the Doctor nodded. "In you go."

"Are you going to sonic my door?"

"Yes," he told her, very plainly with a strong glare to Jack, whose eyes were starting to droop.

"Doctor?" Donna's voice was still low, but it was being clouded with drug induced drowsiness.

"I know," he told her and waved at Grace, "In…I don't fancy sleeping in the hallway.

Grace slipped inside, the Doctor fumbled with his screwdriver. His eyes were closing even as he aimed it, but he was fairly certain that it worked. He grabbed Donna's hand, hoping that she would keep moving her feet forward. He had no problem carrying her, but he could barely move himself at this point.

He had just enough of him left to insure that Jack made it to his room safely, though he couldn't be bothered locking his door as well. It wasn't as if Jack would be awake in the next twenty hours or so.

The Doctor stumbled into the room, slipping off his shoes. "Shoes, Donna. Hurry."

She did as he said, if he had energy he would try to mark down this occasion as the second time in their history she listened without a word otherwise, but as it was he grabbed her to him, wanting her near him even in sleep, and they fell onto the bed. Sleep overcame them easily, and he was thankful.

DW

Grace groaned, and ran her tongue around the inside of her mouth. Her mouth was dry, and she had to pry her eyes open. As her mind filled in the blanks as best as it could, it supplied her Time orientated brain with the knowledge that she had been sleep for nineteen hours fifty eight minutes.

She looked up at the ceiling, her head aching to the point she suspected that if Time Lords could get drunk…which technically they could it just took more alcohol then most had the patience to drink…that the hangover would feel like this.

She heard a groan next to her, and she froze…oh…this couldn't be good.

"Morning," Jack's voice made its way to her ears.

Oh…bad…so, so, so, bad. "Jack?"

"Yes?" He sounded very groggy and probably didn't see the problem yet.

"You are in my bed…" she looked around the room to confirm that it was him that came to her, not the other way around. "In my room, in my bed."

She felt him shift, "So I am."

Really, Jack…still not getting it.

"Jack, did we…what are you wearing under the covers Jack?"

He took in a sharp inhale. There you go, Jack.

She watched him lift the covers, but made absolutely no attempt to peek…well…mostly no attempt.

"Boxers," he answered softly. "You?"

She looked, and she had to admit that he didn't try to see. At least he had a little self control. At least she was wearing something she supposed. "I don't want to talk about it. Jack did we…dance?"

He seemed to be thinking, probably hard with the fuzziness of the leftover pollen. "No, you would remember."

"Right, because your amazing, I'm sure. Now isn't the time to be cocky."

He beamed, and she fought the smile that was rising. "It's morning. I can't exactly help it."

"Bad joke," she told him. But she laughed a little, on the inside. But she was much too dignified to share that fact.

"I know. But really, Grace, love. I don't think so. I must have stumbled in here, and we fell asleep."

She nodded. "Right, that must be it. What do you remember of yesterday?"

He shook his head. "Not much…fairly certain I proposed."

She remembered that very clearly…but fortunately the rest of the thoughts seemed to be blurred. The TARDIS hummed at her and she thought maybe she was being shielded from bad memories.

"Thanks beautiful," she spoke to the TARDIS, before turning on her side, making sure to keep the covers up over her. "Yes, I think so. Jack, my parents are awake."

Jack nodded but didn't move, watching her.

"Jack, um, you aren't wearing anything but boxers, and I'm not wearing…enough."

Jack winked. "Yeah, I know."

"The Doctor, Jack. He is up and you are almost naked in my bed!"

Panic filled his features, and he stumbled out of the bed. His boxers were TARDIS blue and he wore them well, but now was not the time to focus on that.

"Don't let him kill me, Grace."

He searched the room for anything to pull on but found nothing.

"Just hurry. Your room is next door."

Jack nodded. "Love you," he mumbled and opened the door peeking out. His smile was small but showed relief as he stepped out and the door closed behind him.

Grace hunkered down in her bed, trying to figure out exactly what happened. A few minutes later there was a knock on her door.

"Grace?"

"Dad?"

"Can I come in?"

She pulled the covers up to her chin, but tried to look casual. "Of course."

He opened the door, his eyes filled with something that made her think he remembered yesterdays events in more detail than he cared for.

"You okay? You know, from the pollen, and everything."

"Fine," she was fairly certain she could hear her own worry. She didn't want him to take this out on Jack…especially since she didn't know what 'this' was. "You and Mom?"

"Fine," he agreed. "So…see you at breakfast…I'll cook."

"Okay," he nodded and closed the door, the back of his neck pink.

She knew that she must be missing something in her memories that had him that embarrassed. Maybe it would stay missing.


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor sat at the table, trying not to blush or make his watching of his family too obvious. They were all eating in absolute silence, each avoiding eye contact with each other. His head ached fiercely and he was fairly certain that theirs did as well, but though he had medicine that could take the pain away in seconds he couldn't give them anything. There was just enough pollen residue in their blood streams that could react to anything he gave.

He remembered too much of yesterday, more than he should, although when has he ever listened to the rules of 'should'? Donna didn't remember anything, he had asked. And he didn't remembered anything in stage one, but he remembered very clearly all of stage two.

He and Donna had shared way too much of their sex life with their daughter. The daughter who he loved more than anything in the universe, so much he would take apart that universe atom by atom to get her back if she was taken. But he suspected she would take a good old fashioned kid napping over remembering the discussion about the table they were currently eating at.

But she didn't seem to remember, concentrating very hard, as if breakfast held the secret to life.

"So, what should we do today," Donna finally broke the silence. Jack looked up relived, but Grace maintained her steady stare at her bowl of cereal.

"Maybe shopping," Jack suggested, with a side glance to Grace.

He hated shopping nearly as much as the Doctor but like the Doctor he would endure it for the sake of the women he loved. And he seemed to want to improve Grace's mood as much as the Doctor.

"Sure," Donna agreed, lighting up in a way that never failed to take the Doctor's breath away. "Sounds fun, right Grace?"

"Fun," Grace agreed, looking up only to blush and look back down.

She remembers, the Doctor thought. She must, that's why she can't look at them.

"Grace," Donna prodded, not bothering to be subtle. She left that to the Doctor. They used him for a sneak attack on her thoughts and feelings, and Donna for the obvious. She did that so well.

Grace finally looked up again, and gave a small smile. "Really, shopping sounds good. We need to get a few things for the kitchen as well."

"Oh," Donna looked around, while the Doctor looked only at Grace. "What's that?"

"Well," she stretched the word as he often did. "A new table to start with."

Donna was looking at the table carefully, even sliding off her chair to check for defects. When she was out of sight the Doctor whispered to Grace. "We cleaned it well. I wouldn't let you eat here if we hadn't."

"We are getting a new table, Dad." She argued. "Or do you want me to think of that every time we eat. You can move it to your room or something."

Grace was not the boss…except she was her mother's child, and so she was. And really, it was such a small request to appease her.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Donna concluded as she reappeared, tapping it with her knuckles, "Sturdy as ever."

Grace went pink again, "Dad."

The Doctor nodded at her, "Still, perhaps it's best. We can put it somewhere else…" Grace was watching him carefully, and Jack was turning pink as well.

"Somewhere else," Jack agreed.

"Our room," the Doctor told Donna suddenly, remembering Jack's declaration of what he might eat on that table.

Donna was watching the three of them carefully. "Am I missing something?"

"No," the trio said in unison, and Grace shook her head.

"I was also thinking that we could get some new muffin pans," she told her Mom, and to this Donna nodded.

"They do get a lot of use," she agreed, taking the distraction. The Doctor gave Grace a grateful smile, and she stuck out her tongue at him.

Donna rose and proceeded to wash her dish, and go put on her shopping shoes. Jack kissed Grace's cheek and disappeared to…well to do something. Probably best not to know.

Grace was watching him over the table and he smiled and gave a small awkward wave before asking. "How much do you remember?"

"Everything, boat boy," she told him, raising her eyebrows.

He got a brief flash in his memory of water and motor noises, and was grateful he didn't remember more than that. "You know I'm sorry. I wasn't in control of my words."

"Of course I know you're sorry," she brushed it off easily, before continuing in a more serious tone. "But we are most defiantly getting a new table."

"Agreed," he nodded.

"And," her voice was hard, like only he had ever heard from Donna. "I get to pilot for a week," she told him.

He was a sucker for her at the best of times, and at the best of times, he hadn't shared details of his and her mother's sex life. So pilot she would.

"Anything else," he asked.

"Prince and princess, really? You guys are so weird."

He smiled at her, at least she was adapting. "Spice of life and all that."

She shook her head. "Jack and I are going on a date, tonight."

He frowned. "Oh?"

"And you are going to stay far away, please and thank you. Take Mom somewhere nice."

He nodded, Donna would be pleased. Maybe he could take her dancing, normal dancing. "Okay, if that's what you want."

"I do," she agreed. She rose, "and Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"Jack may have been in my bed this morning," she spouted off quickly.

"He what!"

The Doctor rose but Grace held up her hands. "Just wanted to be honest, nothing happened though, don't worry."

"I could have gone without hearing that," the Doctor told her.

"I know," she grinned and nodded. "Fair is fair."

With that she spun and walked out of the room.


End file.
